The Italian experience in implementing Industry 4.0

Abstract

This article analyzes the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies in Italy. The article provides, in the first part, the essential information on the government plan on Industry 4.0 and the reactions of entrepreneurs and unions to this plan. In the second part, the research summarizes the results of a field research conducted by the "Claudio Sabattini" Foundation on behalf of the Italian unions. In this research, we interviewed both company managers and individual workers in thirty companies. We identified two different paths of innovation based on Industry 4.0: the smart factory and the smart products. According to the employees' interviews, the main problems of the adoption of Industries 4.0 technologies are the intensification of work pace and the intensification of workloads made possible by the new technologies.